What is meant by open-pollinated organic seed?
Plants that are open-pollinated, means that the wind and insects brings pollen from the male flower to the female flower so that fertilization occurs and hence a swelling will be found at the base of the female flower that consequently forms into a fruit or vegetable. This is something that has occurred in nature over eons of time. Open-pollinated seed reproduce true to type generation after generation so they can be depended upon as nutritious and locally adaptable plants. Let’s have a look at why open-pollinated seed are for home gardeners.

It’s in the genes! The genetic make-up of any given plant is its primary and fundamental being. Lots of genetic variation within a species helps it to adapt to disease and pests, drought and local climatic variations. For example; with beans the ratio of darker seeds may increase, more lettuces may be able to witstand hotter weather, a proportion of okra may be able to wit- stand autumn’s cooler weather and still produce fruit and every year a larger number of tomatoes may produce more pest resistant fruit.

This is what happens as a result of natural selection, those types that are best adapted to new environmental conditions will dominate more and more with each generation until after a number of years an equilibrium is reached.

In cross-pollinating species such as carrots or spinach, seeds developed after natural out-crossing between two plants with each new plant represent a new genetic combination. However, they will vary only within certain limits. Once established, the general behaviour of that certain variety will remain constant. This means that when you are growing on this particular strain of a plant family then that plant must not be cross-pollinated by another strain or that particular variety will be lost. Some examples of this would be early, mid and late season varieties.

Saving seeds from plants that show no insect damage will eventually lead to pest resistant strains and in the same way plants that develop before the onset of frost will manage to bear viable seeds will survive to be selected so this will produce a variety that sets pods earlier and has a marked tolerance to colder weather. It usually takes a decade to produce a new variety.
For the home gardener and serious seed saver, this will mean that certain varieties will do best in that particular location. There are thousands of corn varieties, developed by local farmers and gardeners who have fine-tuned the plants to their desires and growing environments. The story is similar for most of the plants we use in our gardens: Hundreds of thousands of varieties exist and these have been developed by individual growers. Saving seeds has been central to the creation of these varieties. It is still the way farmers and gardeners in many parts of the world do their work.

What is meant by cross-pollination?
When two varieties of the same species of plants pollinate, then there is a loss of that strain and this can result in a new variety. When this happens on a regular basis then the original varieties can be easily lost and this is exactly what is happening today.

What is meant by hybrid seed?
Hybrid seed comes from two parents that do not pollinate and fertilise each other in nature. The resulting offspring however, have what is known as hybrid vigour and the crop grown is very productive. This suits the farmer who needs uniform ripening, even sized produce and dependable harvesting times to suit the market. These crops however need higher inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. Most food grown by chemical means today are hybrids.

Subsequent generations of hybrid seed do not display this vigorous growth so therefore the parent plants are needed each time to produce such a productive crop. Hybridisation or cross pollination also occurs naturally but in the seed industry it is the deliberate narrowing of the gene pool until particular characteristics are isolated in each crop. Sometimes a variety that has been selected for a desirable trait, is bred on itself for ten generations, a procedure called ‘selfing’. The two distinct inbred varieties are then married. The offspring are then called F1 (first filial). The next generation bred becomes F2. F2 do not have the selected traits of F1 and this generation usually produces a mixed bag of descendants including inbred characteristics. Then to top it off, F2 seed won’t even germinate!

Hybridised seed are two wildly different varieties. To fertilise the female flower from one genetically different variety to another, takes a considerable amount of hand labour.
1. The seed that are hybridized often come from countries where there are no minimum wages so costs are kept down.
2. The price of food has been kept relatively cheap due to an overabundance of production due to the hybrid vigour and petro-chemical inputs.
The home gardener has no need for hybridized seed. Saving seed from such plants does not give reliable results and a lot of roguing occurs.

What do we look for in open-pollinated seed for the home garden?

• To preserve the genetic variety
• To develop adaptable seed for local climatic conditions.
• To preserve the right to save our own seeds.
• To increase our available options.

This is what genetic variability means. The dangers of our global food supply’s dependence on hybrids that are totally dependant on petro-chemical input in the era of peak oil and climate change are imminent. There is no long term future in growing food this way!!
Hybrid plants have lost their genetic variability to adapt to local climatic changes and resistance to pests and disease. Therefore they are evermore reliant on chemical input to keep them productive. As a result, most of what we plant, grow, and eat comes from just a few highly developed varieties of each of our food plants. At the garden store, you may find ten or twelve less-common carrots or onions to plant, but this doesn’t begin to match the diversity that actually exists.

Genetic diversity is a sort of insurance policy for the continuation of a species, and it’s what drives change and adaptation in the living world. In the case of garden and crop plants, keeping this diversity intact insures that we’ll be able to continue eating the vegetables that we enjoy now and into the future.

One day workshops that teach how to save, process and store seed are held from 9.30- 2.30 usually at the community gardens at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. The workshops give the participants hands on experience in seed saving, a manual and plenty of seed to take home. Cost is $50 per person. If you can gather twenty people then I’ll come out to you anywhere in South East Queensland.